Memo may force move to central dispatch: After years of talking, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller pushes for action

Gazette fileKalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller holds the ceremonial shovel used for the groundbreaking of the Sheriff's Department and Jail in 1971, which he used to turn dirt in Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony for the new $23.5 million addition and renovation of the Kalamazoo County jail.

KALAMAZOO — The prospect of a central dispatch center has been a point of debate for two decades in Kalamazoo County.

Fuller, sheriff for the past three years, raised eyebrows earlier this month when he announced plans to move dispatchers from his agency out of a facility they share with dispatchers from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and Kalamazoo Township Police Department unless an agreement can be reached to form a consolidated dispatch authority.

The proclamation was contained in a two-page memorandum announcing how Fuller planned to plug a $750,000 budget hole at the sheriff’s office for 2012. Fuller and Undersheriff Pali Matyas said they pay $200,000 a year to the city of Kalamazoo as part of the agreement penned in 2003 to have dispatchers from the three agencies housed at one location.

By moving county dispatchers back to the sheriff’s office on Lamont Street, Fuller and Matyas said they will be able to save a portion of that $200,000 while, at the same time, having more direct supervision over their dispatchers.

“I know that if we’re going to move forward (with central dispatch) we need to quit the discussions and do something,” Fuller said. “For the last couple of years we have looked at all

See dispatch, A7

the different things the sheriff could do to improve the budget here and when we look at all the things we have control over, the dispatch center is one of them. When we look at that and I realize how much money we are spending for our ability to be in a space to operate, I have concerns about that when some of the things that were designed for us to achieve when we went in there ... we have not achieved.”

Fuller said leaving the dispatch center on Crosstown is not imminent and any formal decision to do so would need to be announced one year prior to pulling up stakes.

But his announcement comes as he, Kalamazoo County Administrator Peter Battani, Kalamazoo City Manager Kenneth Collard, KDPS Chief Jeff Hadley, Portage City Manager Maurice Evans, Portage Department of Public Safety Director Richard White and Kalamazoo Township Police Chief Tim Bourgeois, among others, have been involved in ongoing discussions about the formation of a central dispatch center to serve their agencies, as well as the Western Michigan University Department of Public Safety and all county fire departments.

Battani, Bourgeois, Collard and Hadley all expressed surprise at the stance Fuller took in his Nov. 4 memo but also said they are confident that a central dispatch authority here will become a reality.

”It’s my expectation that we’re going to have something for our elected governing bodies, a public recommendation, by the end of the year,” Battani said.

Of Fuller’s memo, Battani said, “I do think that this is unfortunate that he wrote that the way he wrote that. It’s basically that if we don’t get to this at a point and time that he’s going to pull out of ... the consolidated dispatch authority issue and I don’t think that’s wise.

”I absolutely understand where it’s coming from,” Battani said. “It’s his frustration with his budget situation and the amount of time it’s taken to get this thing off the dime.”

Bourgeois said Fuller’s memo was the first time he had heard from Fuller that he planned to move out of the Crosstown Parkway dispatch center.

”We continue to meet ... and that is a viable possibility,” Bourgeois said of a central dispatch authority. “Based on the infromation we have right now it certainly seems like it makes sense and would be a good thing but it’s important to work through the entire process. There are a number of politicial, technical and financial issues to work through and it’s important that as we work through this we examine those things.”

Battani said that the move of dispatchers from the city, county and township in 2003 and 2004 to one location was seen by county officials then as the first step to a true central dispatch center.

But taking the next step has proven difficult over the last seven to eight years because of a number of challenges, including that the three agencies operate on a different dispatch system than Portage, as well as trying to satisfy the bargaining units that represent dispatchers from each jurisdiction.

”The concept at that time was it was an engagement ... that would result in marriage,” Battani said. “It’s just that we’ve had an eight-year engagement. I guess one of the parties that been engaged is saying, ‘Are we going to get married or not?’”

Fuller, meanwhile, isn’t backing down from the contents of his memo.

”I have concerns that if we don’t set a timeline to this, these discussions will perpetuate ... or limited success will be achieved,” the sheriff said. “It’s very important to me that the next step we accompolish happens in the next year. I’m at the point where we make it better or we move on.”

Fuller said he may give notice as early as Jan. 1 of his intention to move out of the facility on Crosstown Parkway. If he does so, he said he hopes that within that year, a decision on a consolidated dispatch authority will be finalized.

Hadley expressed optimism that an agreement can be reached and that central dispatch will finally become a reality.

”It has been slow-moving but I am optimistic,” Hadley said. “It’s a long process and I don’t think things have slowed down but this isn’t the only issue on the table.”